Wenatchee School Board Discusses SRO Policy

In the midst of protests regarding the police force and other school districts removing School Resource Officers, Wenatchee School Board discussed its School Resource Officer (SRO) policy at Tuesday's meeting. Training and responsibilities were some of the aspects discussed as board members tackled the first reading of the policy.

"The thing I'm pretty excited about is...the education and the informal counselor is where they spent a majority of their time this last year with our students," said Mark Helm, assistant superintendent.

During the transition to remote learning in the spring, the W.S.D student resource officers made themselves available to pass out lunches, attempting to make connections with students at home and worked to figure out what was keeping kids from engaging.

Board members posed questions about the training requirement for SROS, which Helm notes there is a list of trainings for the officers to complete.

"Our guys are actively fulfilling every requirement that there is out there," said Helm. "They love their jobs, they love working with kids."

Helm added that the SROS would like to meet with the board soon due to having not congregated in front of the school board yet due to COVID-19.